Japanese biwa are fretted and plucked lutes that were introduced from the Asian continent
around the 17th century. These instruments were derived, it is presumed from Western Asia,
where its related instruments such as the Arabic, Uod, the European lute, and guitar are also
said to orginate from. Japan owes its direct introduction to China and Korea where there are
similar instruments called pyiba, p'i-p'a, etc. It is interesting to note that the
construction and usage of each instrument reflects some aspects of cultural values and
musical ideas among each ethnic group. For instance, in China, as many as 17 frets make it
possible for a p'i-p'a player to show his or her virtuosic fingering in fast passages, while
in Japan, in contrast, the traditional Satsuma Biwa muscians are often found engaging in
subtle modification of a tone before it dies away by use of the left hand fingering
techniques applied in the proximity of frets or bridges as few as 4 or 5.

Even within Japan, there are variants of biwa, supporting as many genres of music. And the
genres have been preserved almost in coexistence, though with different periods of origin and
with differing popularity among different classes of people through time. The oldest styles
are perhaps gaku biwa and moso-biwa (blind priests' biwa): the former as in gagaku (ensemble
functioning mainly in the palace), introduced in the 7th century; the latter, also called
kojin-biwa (for the god of the kitchen), religious chant, originating in Kyoto in the 8th
century. Although unreligious in nature, kokkei biwa (comical) and higo biwa (narrative from
Kumamoto) show strong influences from moso-biwa. The well-known Heikei biwa, or heikyoku,
from the 12th centruy in Kyoto is also narrative, based on the Heike Monogatari (an epic
depicting the decline of the Taira clan).